Vacation Ruined - catastrophic failure

[Electrified Outdoors]

There was a local couple that came and hung out with us until our friend came. I did try putting jumper cables on the truck from the hitch. Nothing powered up.

So while it was a bad incident with the truck something good did come out of it. You had what sounds like a pleasant experience with a couple that you otherwise wouldn't have met had it not been for the issue with the truck.

We just started our family vacation and it was just cut short because we got news that a close family member of my wife just died. Would gladly trade places with you.

First, I'm so sorry for your loss. That's about the worst way to have a vacation cut short. Certainly puts a broken down truck into perspective. Still frustrating to have a broken down truck but good to remember things could always be worse.

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[azbill]

It seems very likely that this is related to the 12V lead acid battery issues.

Oddly, Rivian elected to use two, relatively small 12V modules. Seems as though left and right power their respective sides, hence the stroke symptoms.

Lead acid is archaic and doesn't handle discharge particularly well. There is also evidently some issue with the charging circuitry for these which makes these prone to failure.

Are you sure they are lead acid? Most EVs are using AGM batteries and those are very reliable. I even use AGM deep cycles on my boat.

 

[aconfusedazn]

These are common signs of a stroke. Strange for one that young to get one.

Probably hemorrhagic, from a congenital malformation

 

[WhidbeyIsland]

Very unfortuante to hear. Ror the rest of us, it wil be informative to hear what was the issue and how Rivian solves this scenarior.

 

[godfodder0901]

Are you sure they are lead acid? Most EVs are using AGM batteries and those are very reliable. I even use AGM deep cycles on my boat.

AGM batteries are a type of lead-acid battery...

 

[diurnate]

There was a local couple that came and hung out with us until our friend came. I did try putting jumper cables on the truck from the hitch. Nothing powered up.

You didn't mention if you could get into the frunk - I'm assuming you couldn't because you tried to jump from the rear, but if it was working it would make sense that it was a secondary batter failure and jumping from the back wouldn't help. I gave away my old jump start battery when I got rid of our last ICE vehicle, but starting to feel like I should keep one in my truck ....

 

[SASSquatch]

It seems very likely that this is related to the 12V lead acid battery issues.

Oddly, Rivian elected to use two, relatively small 12V modules. Seems as though left and right power their respective sides, hence the stroke symptoms.

Lead acid is archaic and doesn't handle discharge particularly well. There is also evidently some issue with the charging circuitry for these which makes these prone to failure.

There is an aftermarket vendor that sells lithium replacements. I have about 20k on the clock also and am considering doing this...

Sucks about your trip. Sorry to hear that.

Anyone hear if Rivian is switching to lithium ion batteries in newer models?

 

[NY_Rob]

Are you sure they are lead acid? Most EVs are using AGM batteries and those are very reliable. I even use AGM deep cycles on my boat.

As was mentioned- AGM is just a variant of ancient tech wet-lead Acid batteries, with an acid saturated sponge like material substituting for the liquid between the lead plates in old school 12 Volt lead-acid batts. Still lead, still acid... with the inherent problems of the lead-acid tech, but no venting so you can use them inside the cab of a vehicle or vessel without chance of explosion due to production of hydrogen gas from charging or discharging.

Tesla has solved the temperature roadblocks in using Lithium batteries as 12V primary batteries in their vehicles and has been running them for more that two winters now. Rivian could as well if they tried, and with the energy density of Lithium cells- they could replace the two troublesome tiny AGM batts in the R1 vehicles with a single Lithium battery with even more current capacity than the two AGM's currently offer, and it would be much more reliable to boot with a built-in BMS that would prevent it going below a pre-set low voltage cutoff and killing itself permanently.

 

[Yeti370]

Having a similar vacation ruined situation. Yesterday, my truck ran down to 0 when I was 5 miles from the charger. Had to have it towed to the service center, which was actually 3 miles from where the truck died. Now Im waiting for the SC to update me on how long Im stranded, and if I can get my clothes, prescriptions and essentials out of the gear tunnel, since the truck completely bricked while waiting for a tow. ?‍

 

[Deleted member 7086]

There are two fuse boxes. One under the passenger dash and one under the driver’s side dash. Difficult to access. Need to get on your back under the dash. Rivian does not disclose a fuse diagram but they have been published on the forums. It appears Rivian uses special fuses which you can not find at the local auto parts store.

 

[Gman]

Thanks for the YouTube - I came really close to ordering the Ohmmu.

 

[Gman]

If you’re talking Ohmmu, I’d be very cautious:

https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/thr...o-by-ingineerix-ohmmu-issue-explained.302015/

Shrink- why do you think Rivian doesn’t offer a 12V option to lead acid like Tesla does. My SIL had both 12 V goes dead after 2023.14 update in his R1S. They live in HNL. SC sends tech to HI once a quarter To service 25 or so Rivian on islands. They replaced his with lead acid 12 V’s.

 

[CUBldr97]

any update?

 

[Soupdc]

At service. They are working on it today. No word from them yet. But on service request is see two 12v batteries added to the service list

 

[carmigo]

These are common signs of a stroke. Strange for one that young to get one.

Rivian... blink if you can hear me..?

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